The following lines from Preface I of Lent may seem
surprising to people accustomed to thinking of Lent solely
as a time of penance: "Each year, you give us this joyful
season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery
with mind and heart renewed."

Lent is certainly a period marked by seriousness, but,
contrary to certain stereotypes, it is also a time of joy.

Lent calls the Church to confront both individual and
collective sin. We become aware of our sinfulness, however,
not by remaining fixated on ourselves, but by contemplating
the love of God revealed by the Son in the
Spirit. The readings for Masses during Lent certainly denounce
sin but at the same time proclaim the divine
mercy which is always ready to forgive.

The call to conversion which we hear again and again in
the prayers and scriptures of the Lenten season is not
intended to overwhelm us with guilt and fear; it is an invitation
to stand erect once more as people who are loved
and forgiven by God.

The works of Lent -- prayer, fasting and almsgiving -- do
not have value in themselves, as the scriptures proclaimed
on Ash Wednesday clearly remind us. The Christian practice
of fasting and almsgiving is not an ascetical performance
or some form of self-imposed penitential punishment
but aims at leading us to interior conversion. Fasting at
certain times helps us to keep, or to rediscover, mastery
over our instincts. We fast in order to share our time and
our treasure with an attitude of love towards God and others.

Since its beginning, the "reason for the season" has
been a time of preparation for Easter, as the words of the
Lenten Preface I quoted above indicate. The first reading
of each Sunday of Lent recalls the wonderful work of God
among the Hebrew people. At the Easter Vigil, we hear
these stories again, starting with creation, the first step in
God's universal plan of salvation.

Easter is the liturgical and sacramental celebration of
renewal, of the passage from death to life, of new birth
through our participation in the death and resurrection of
Christ in baptism. That is why the Constitution on the Sacred
Liturgy called for "more use to be made of the baptismal
features proper to the Lenten liturgy" (CSL 109a).

For catechumens who will receive the sacraments of
initiation at the Easter Vigil, Lent is a time of intense
preparation. But the whole community walks with them on
their journey to membership of the Church and welcomes
them into its midst. In a certain sense, we remain catechumens
throughout our lives as we travel the road towards
perfection in Christ. At the Easter Vigil, all the baptized
are called to return to their Baptism by renewing
their profession of faith and their commitment to discipleship.

Lent is not a period of guilt-laden introspection, but a
joyful walk towards the great season of Easter, a progression
in the Church toward the summit of the liturgical
year.